1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a game playing machine equipped with a vibrating feeder, and particularly a dice playing machine in which at least one die is thrown, and the result of the game depends on the number of spots on its selected side.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When playing dice, one or two dice are thrown on a table, sometimes after putting the dice in a dice cup and shaking the dice cup, and then a decision as to who wins or loses the game is made on the basis of the number of spots from 1 to 6 on a selected side of the die. These acts are usually performed by a person, and therefore the game cannot be conducted quickly. In an attempt to increase the speed of the game, and accordingly the excitement in the game. a variety of dice playing machines have been proposed and actually used.
One of these machines is an electronic game playing apparatus using a cathode ray tube and a computer program. In operation, a die appears on the screen, and the die is rolled by depressing selected buttons. The game is quick, but the player cannot have an actual feeling of the die; no actual die is used, and the game is played on the flat space. No excitement can be caused by the image of die appearing on the flat screen.
Another conventional die machine uses a vibrating feeder. In this machine an actual die is thrown on the vibrating feeder, and then the die is rolled about in all directions. The vibrating feeder has a flat space large enough to permit a die to fall on the flat surface without turning aside therefrom, no matter which directions the die may be thrown, thus not requiring the player's careful control in throwing the die. The rolling of the die on the table in all directions increases excitement in the game. After the die rolls about on the vibrating table, it is brought to a given place where the player counts the number of spots on a selected side of the die to make a decision on the game.
This die machine, however, is not very quick. In the hope of providing a quicker game it has been proposed that a vibrating feeder type die machine be equipped with an automatic die spot counting device using for instance, photosensors for counting the number of spots on a selected side of the die. In order to assure accuracy in counting of the number of spots, however, it is necessary to bring the die to a relatively small place, and put the die in a position appropriate for automatic spot-counting. It is, however, difficult to put the die into the desired counting position after rolling and falling out of the relatively large space on which the die rolls about in all directions. Thus, there is the fear of miscounting the spots of the die.